When They Fight
by EpicCj
Summary: You are Karkat Vantas and you're tired of these arguments. This may be the third time today but it's been happening all week and you're tired of it. ((DualSign fic where they just have those crazy arguments that make their kids feel like they're gonna split. As a child of divorce I know how it tends to make the kids feel pretty awful.))
1. Chapter 1

This was the third time that day in your count. The third time that day your parents got into a loud yelling match, and this one seemed to be the worst. They were in the living room, yelling at the top of their lungs and cursing at each other, each word screamed filled with venom. Even with your bedroom door shut you could still hear every word coming from downstairs.

You door opens and there stands your little brother. He looks just as upset as you feel.

"This is the third time," he says.

"I know." You two stay in silence as you just listen to the still heated argument continue. Things seemed to be turning for the worse when you two begin to hear the threats of one of them leaving. That's when Eridan finally joins you in your room and sits on your bed, hugging his knees. You turn around in your desk chair and look at him. You see the translucent violet tears falling down his face, it almost makes you cry but you know you have to be strong for him.

"Kar," Eridan speaks again. "You don't think Papa or Daddy's really gonna leawe do you?" He lifts his glasses and wipes his eyes. You look away. You can't promise him anything because you're scared that one of them is gonna leave too, and that you might not ever see one of them again.

"I don't know Eridan." You manage.

You want to throw up. You can't stand this arguing stuff anymore. It always bothers you that after they have their little angry spouts, they avoid each other, and then when they talk to you or your brother, they pretend nothing ever happened.

The slamming of doors snaps you out of your train of thought. You look to Eridan who is full out crying into a pillow on your bed. You stand and walk over to your bedroom door and open it. It's quiet. To quiet. Did they leave? You walk down the stairs silent as possible and look in the living room. Your Papa is sitting on the couch with his head in his hands shaking.

You scan the room to look for your Dad but it seems he's not here. You make you way over to Papa and place a hand on his shoulder. He jumps and looks at you. He's crying. Red tears are flowing and they seem to have no end.

"Karkat," He sighs. You want to ask him where Daddy went but he's already so upset.

"Papa, Eridan and I are hungry." You lie. Your appetite is gone and who knows if your brother is hungry or not.

"O-Oh, I'm sorry dinner's been ready. Wash your hands and get your brother." Papa stands and takes a shuddery breath before kissing your forehead and disappearing into the kitchen. There it is. The same "I-totally wasn't-just-in-an-argument-with-my-supposed-to-be-matesprit-which-the-whole-neighborhood-might-have-heard-now-he's-gone-to-God-knows-where-and-I-wasn't-just-on-the-couch-crying-about-it-everything-is-just-fine" attitude.

You're tired of these arguments. This may be the third time today but it's been happening all week and you're tired of it. As you go upstairs to retrieve your probably still crying brother, every step you take still reminds you how much the situation makes you want to throw up.


	2. Chapter 2

As hard as you tried, you couldn't seem to keep your eyes open for more than a second or two. You, Eridan, and Papa are currently in the dark of the living room with only the television as light. The three of you decided to have a little movie night after dinner and now it's past your bedtime and the flashes of the screen are putting you to sleep.

You lift your head to look at Papa and realize that even he is falling asleep. You don't even have to look to know that Eridan is knocked out. He's always been the first to go to sleep and the first to wake up.

You nuzzle deeper into Papa's side and let yourself fall asleep; and before you know it, you're being woken again.

"Come on Baby, time to go to your bed." Papa helps you stand and you notice that Eridan is gone. Must have already went to his room.

Papa follows you up to your room where you flop on the bed. He pulls the covers over you and moves your bangs away from your face where he plants a kiss.

"Night Karkat," He smiles as he closes the door behind him.

You're later awaken by your bladder urging you to go to the bathroom. You venture out of your bedroom and to the bathroom. Once finished, you peek into Eridan's room and see that he's still asleep. You'll never admit that you check in on your little brother but it makes you feel at ease to know that he's ok.

You quietly close the door and as you turn around, you see that the door to your parent's room is wide open. You peer inside and listen for the familiar sound of Daddy snoring but there is none. You tip-toe to the stairs and quietly descend.

The TV is flashing and the sound it low which makes you creep down a few more stairs to see that Papa is still up. You can't get a good look at what he's watching because the front door begins to unlock and that makes you scramble to the top of the stairs. Seems that Daddy finally came back and even where you stand, you can smell the smoke that comes off him.

The television flashes off and then you hear the soft murmur of voices before Papa comes into view. You race back into your bedroom and jump into bed. You hear footsteps coming up the stairs and then one pair fades away as the other one draws closer.

The door is opened and the smell of smoke creeps in.

Daddy comes towards you and moves your hair to kiss your forehead like Papa did then leaves, you assume he's going to do the same with Eri. At least one of your worries is gone, Daddy's back and he doesn't seem hurt or anything; just smells like a ton of cigarettes. You still don't like it though. You don't want this to become a habit because you don't know what you'll do.

You drift to sleep and woken up around eleven the next morning.

"Come on Kar w-wake up!" You throw a pillow at Eridan, which misses him and knocks your reading lamp off your desk. Just great, if that broke you swear you're going to kill him. Your door opens and Daddy stand in the doorway.

"What fell?" He asks looking back and forth between you and Eridan.

"The lamp, no big deal." You drop back onto your second pillow attempting to block you family out.

"Well pick it up and come downstairs for breakfast." He leaves the door open and walks away, Eridan following behind him.

You only come down when Daddy threatens to drag you down the stairs and take away your rom-coms. In the kitchen, he was reading the newspaper and sitting down with Eridan as Papa put the finishing touches on breakfast.

"Good Morning Kat, ready to eat?" He asks with a smile, sitting in his normal spot at the table.

"I could eat." You sit at your usual spot at the table. When the right amount of omelet was dished out, everyone began to dig in.

"Tastes delicious Papa!" Eridan complimented, shoving another forkful of egg in his mouth. The little suck up. You rolled your eyes as Papa smiled.

"Thank you Eri, glad to hear it." Daddy shook his newspaper and continued reading.

"So what are you boys doing today?" He asked eyes still glued to what he was reading.

"Oh, well Kar an me-"

"Kar and I,"

"Sorry, Kar and I are goin to wisit someone today w-with Papa.. Right?"

"To Psii's house," You confirmed pushing sausage across your plate.

"Yupp, which means you two can play with your friends!" Papa adds more towards you and Eridan.

"Why do you need to go over there." You, Eridan and Papa all look at Daddy who's looking at Papa.

"What? There a problem?"

"I'm just asking a question, no need to get defensive." Papa narrowed his eyes and you could practically see the fire in his eyes.

"I'm not getting "defensive", Cronus, simply annoyed why I would need to give you a reason to go pay a visit to my morial." Daddy snapped his paper shut.

"I'm sorry that me wanting to make sure my children are alright offends you. That guy can be a real smart ass when he wants to."

"You are no peach either."

You look between your parents, then looked to Eridan who who was doing the same.

"Boys," Papa said through grit teeth, not once stopping his gratin match with Daddy. "Can you leave for a minute as Daddy and I have a little talk." You didn't hesitate to push away from the table and grab your brother.

"But I didn't finish eatin!"

"Just come on." You dragged him up the stairs and sit on a step.

You two listen to the first and surely not to be the last argument of the day. The only stop when Papa calls to you to hurry and get dressed so we all could leave.

"Better hurry Kar, he sounds really ticked and you're still in your pajamas." Eridan comments matter-of-factly. You wave him off and do as your told. In the middle of putting your shoes on, he returns in your doorway and is fully dressed with his backpack over his shoulders.

"Hurry Kar, w-what are you doin in here?"

You sling your own backpack over your shoulder .

"Stop worrying about what I'm doing and mind your own damn business please." You say pushing past him and making your way downstairs.

Once there you see that your Papa is still steaming and practically pushes you and Eridan out the door in the middle of your goodbyes to your other Father. You both try to keep up with him as he walks ahead of you mumbling to himself all the way to the Captor-Pyrope residence. Papa bangs on the door when you three get there and the Psiioniic opened the door with annoyance.

"The fuck i'th wrong with you?!"

"Not now we need to talk before I explode." Psii opened the door and greets you then takes Papa I got the kitchen where.

"Sol and Ter are probably dow-wnstairs like alw-ways." Eridan leads you to the basement where in fact your friends are benched out on a black futon.

"Hey Loserth." Sollux grins. Terezi laughs next to him.

"Hi Karkles, Hi Eri," you nodded towards them as Eridan waved like an idiot before busying himself with the coloring junk he brought in he backpack. Sollux made room for you on the futon.

"You bring your 3Dth?"

"You know I did." You pull out your red gaming system as he levitates over his yellow one with the red and blue Gemini sign and wakes it.

"Ready to lothe another Pokèmon battle?" he smirks.

"Hell no, I'm going to win!"

"T.Z you playing?"

"Sure!" She reaches behind the couch and pulls out a teal dual screen and wakes as well.

"Eridan you gonna play?"

"No thanks," your lame brother shakes his head and continues to draw a detailed picture of some sort of flower. That pansy. "Maybe later."

The three of you start a battle and to your dismay, you are the first one to lose which Sollux doesn't let go of. My you get through 5 tournaments and you lose all of them to Sollux, but luckily win against Terezi 3/5 times so you don't feel too irked. As you demand the 6th rematch you hear a raised voice come from upstairs.

"Sounds like Papa," Eridan says putting his pencil down.

"He sounds really mad, what's wrong with him?" Terezi asks closing her DS and placing it next to her. Before you can answer that brat Eridan answers before you.

"He's prolly tellin your Dad w-what's been goin on at our house. He and our Daddy hawe been arguin all w-week."

"All week? That'th a long time."

"Yeah but it'll blow over, I know-w it w-will."

"You don't know that, it could get worse," Terezi shakes her head.

"What are you talking about?" You ask already getting annoyed.

"Well Karkles, if your parents have been arguing for most of the week then that could mean they might break up."

"W-what do you mean break up?" Eridan asks, concern washing over his being.

"You know, end their matespritship."

"They w-would newer do that!"

"You don't know that! They could! Either that or flip quadrants; from red to black just like that."

"They w-wouldn't do that either!" Eridan exclaims and stands.

"They could! That's what normally happens either they split or they flip." Could that really happen? Could your parents end their matespritship and flip to black? They wouldn't, would they?

"That w-won't happen, our parent lowe each other a lot!" Eridan looks at you and you can see violet tears building up. "Right Kar?"

"I-"

"It wouldn't be up to what you believe Eridan, youre just a little kid. That doesn't matter to grown ups." Terezi shrugs and lays back on the futon, letting her legs rest on her brother. "Even if they do switch, you'll still be loved no matter what."

"T.Z stop, you're thcaring him." Sollux finally spoke up, snapping his DS shut.

"But it's the truth !"

"Jutht chill out." Eridan rushes towards you and takes ahold of your sweater.

"Kar," he whimpers "Papa and Daddy won't do any a that right? Right?" You swat his hands away and scowl.

"Relax will ya? You're gonna have a panic attack if you keep this shit up." He backs away from you and the violet floodgates began to flow, you just watch your little brother become a shaking, sniffing, and sobbing mess.

Then the adults pick this as the perfect time to check on you. Papa comes down the stairs first followed but his morial. He sees Eridan crying and rushes over.

"Baby are you alright? Are you hurt? What's wrong you can tell me." Papa's asking him questions a mile a minute which is giving you a headache.

"Jeez Papa he's fine, you don't need to baby him." The look your father gives you sends a shiver down your spine.

Psii goes over to Sollux and smacks his head.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?!"

"What did you do?" He simply asks.

"I didn't do anything Dad jeguth!" Psii turns to Terezi and flicks her.

"Hey!"

"Then what did you do?"

"Nothing, nothing!" She rubs her head like he punched her but her father just glares at her.

Papa and Psii return upstairs once they're sure that none of you messed with Eridan who now sat away from you with his drawing. The rest of the visit flew by and the next thing you know it you're on the way back to your house. It bothers you how Papa carries Eridan all the way back but you guess causes he's smaller and younger than you he makes an exception. But then again, you receive the short gene from Papa so you smaller then your friends except Nepeta. But that still doesn't give Papa any reason to carry Eridan like a wriggler.


End file.
